Crisis, Austerity, and Right-Wing Populism in Europe

The European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund continue to twist the screws, imposing harsh regimes of austerity and immiserating populations across the Continent in the interests of the great banks and big business. An economic catastrophe of a depth not seen since the 1930s continues to unfold, with no end in sight. In the eurozone peripheries, one after another Centrist government has fallen by the wayside while attempting to carry out the neo-liberal terms set by Berlin and Brussels. Left-wing forces have made some tenuous gains at the level of parliaments. But it is the populist right that, up till now, has been the big political winner out of the global crisis – in France, Hungary, the UK, and Germany, not to mention the United States. Our speakers will discuss the dynamism of the far right in Europe, as well as the prospects for a left-wing response, against the backdrop of a threatened decomposition of the EU.

Speakers:

Alan Cafruny International Affairs, Hamilton College, and author of The European Union and Global Capitalism

Costas Lapavitsas Economics, University of London, and author of Crisis in the Eurozone

Kevin Ovenden Author of Syriza: Inside the Labyrinth

Discussant:

Dylan Riley Sociology, UC Berkeley, and author of The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe